When you’re just beginning to learn kick boxing, the only precaution you need to take is to stay out of someone else’s reach. Shadow boxing or finding your fighting stance in front of the mirror are hardly dangerous situations. This is why, by the time you get to the actual kicking and punching part, you may forget that this is a semi-contact sport with a high rate of injury infliction possibility, if practiced carelessly.

Injuries aren’t necessarily caused by an opponent, as I got to learn on my own skin. Apparently, they can appear anytime you hit parts of your body on hard objects. And in kickboxing training, that is pretty much all that you do. Protecting your body should be the first of your concerns whichever your sport or practice of choice might be. In kickboxing, you might keep your head out of serious blows, but the hands, feet, elbows and knees are bound to be used and thus, easily hurt.

Like I mentioned above, I’ve got over-confident while I was doing my beginner’s practice and when I finally started practicing on a heavy bag, I suffered the consequences of my stupidity and for quite some time.

I was alone in the gym when I thought some music will help me concentrate better and maybe create an impulse to increase the power of my strikes, and I was right. I got so worked up because of the rhythm, that I started punching harder and harder, even though after a while my fists started to hurt pretty bad. I did get to wrap my wrists before I started the practice, but that only helped with keeping the wrists in place. By the time I finished, I could barely feel my fingers and pain began to install deeper and deeper into my hands. The injuries I suffered that day kept me away from the gym and this sport for months, not to mention that in the first two weeks, I couldn’t really use my hands but for the simplest tasks, and with major discomfort.

This is the main reason I decided to write this post: to prevent anyone practicing or who contemplates the idea of starting to practice kickboxing that wearing gloves is essential. I’ve heard other fighters, especially teens, saying that wearing gloves is a sign of weakness. I’ve come to realise wearing protective equipment is a sign of wisdom. Gloves, wraps, knee pads, they don’t exist for avoiding pain, but for protecting the integrity of the body, the very body you need in order to do what you love. Kickboxing is a sport with an aggressive side to it, and where there’s aggressiveness, there’s always a good chance that somebody gets hurt. Heavy bags are specially designed to return the resistance a human body would, but sometimes they can be even stronger. Constantly punching them doesn’t weaken them like it would a human body. I know from my own experience how one can get lost in this activity and keep on doing it for hours. Having a glove to protect your fist will make sure you can do so without permanently damaging your hand.

If you’d like to try out kickboxing for yourself, here are two videos that might help: